There is an old saying, “LIFE is not a matter of holding good cards, however, of playing a poor hand well. In today’s world nobody has been dealt a perfect set of circumstances. Especially, when you consider the intelligence of our world leaders and the power play that is going on around us (They neither listens to the other and it seems ridiculous.) 🙁
Often the secret to gaining control over your own LIFE is learning both to accept those circumstances and to work within the perimeters that they impose. If you reclaim some control of those unfortunate circumstances. That is good. One must always remember that changing times usually work out for the best.
The Bible promises a time when all people will be able to have a satisfying measure of control over their LIFE. For the good of it’s people; Life will have a fulfilling impact allowing one to live up to the mission GOD intended for you. Uninhibited by frustrating circumstances, daily pressures and the negative feelings of others in Isaiah 65:21,22. The Bible refers to this as “the Real Life in — Timothy 6:19.
In the winter of 1944 …. stretching into 1945 with the end of World War II still months away. Millions of people in German — occupied Netherlands were forced to go hungry. Upset over a railway strike, the Germans blocked food shipments to the region. Over the course of the proceeding five or six months, thousands died of starvation!!
During the worse of this famine, survivors were barely getting by on as few as 400 calories. Most people will start losing weight on four times that amount. It was during the Dutch Hunger Winter period …. which presented a perfect opportunity for studies by scientists to determine long term health benefits on unborn children.
Food stocks in the cities in the western Netherlands rapidly ran out. The adult rations in cities such as Amsterdam, dropped to below 1000 kilocalories (4,200 kilojoules) a day by the end of November 1944 and to 580 kilocalories in the west by the end of February 1945. Over this Hongerwinter (“Hunger winter”), a number of factors combined to cause starvation of the Dutch people: the winter itself was unusually harsh; and the retreating German army also destroyed docks, bridges to flood the country and impede the Allied advance. As the Netherlands became one of the main western battlefields, widespread dislocation, destruction of the war ruined much of its agricultural land and made the transport of existing food stocks difficult.
The areas affected were home to 4.5 million people. Also Butter had disappeared after October 1944. The supply of vegetable fats dwindled to a minuscule seven-month supply of 1.3 liters per person. At first 100 grams of cheese were allotted every two weeks; meat coupons became worthless. The bread ration had already dropped from 2,200 to 1,800 and then to 1,400 grams per week. Then it fell to 1,000 grams in October, and by April 1945 to 400 grams a week. Together with one kilogram of potatoes, this then formed the entire weekly ration. The black market increasingly ran out of food as well, and with the gas and electricity and heat turned off, everyone was very cold and very hungry.
A letter of commemoration given to a grocer whose shop served as a Red Cross check point giving out the “Swedish bread.”
Operation Manna – “Many Thanks” written in tulips, Holland, May 1945.
In search of food, people would walk for tens of kilometers to trade valuables for food at farms. Tulip bulbs and sugarbeets were commonly consumed. Furniture and houses were dismantled to provide fuel for heating. From September 1944, until early 1945 the deaths of 18,000 Dutch people were attributed to malnutrition as the primary cause and in many more as a contributing factor.
Audrey Hepburn spent her childhood in the Netherlands during the famine and despite her later wealth she had lifelong negative medical repercussions. She suffered from anemia, respiratory illnesses, and edema as a result. Also, her clinical depression later in life has been attributed to malnutrition.
Subsequent academic research on the children whom were also affected in the second trimester of their mother’s pregnancy found an increased incidence of schizophrenia in these children. Also increased amongst them were the rates of schizotypal personality and neurological defects.
Other studies show that the cause and effect for children born in this time frame were smaller at birth and stayed that way. For those that were conceived just prior to the famine it must have looked to their parents as though their babies had gotten off scot-free.
However, somehow, that very early hardship, experienced early on “programmed” those children for elevated rates of many unhealthy conditions and chronic diseases, such as obesity, altered lipid profiles, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, increased stress responses, schizophrenia and addiction.
The question then becomes, HOW?